'I thought he was going to kill us, rob us or keep us hostage,' says Greenwood Food and Beverage's worker

JACKSON, MI – As a man ran into Greenwood Food and Beverage with a gun in his hands and yelling on Wednesday, workers at the market didn't know what would happen next, as they took cover behind the counter.

Parneet Kaurghotra, an employee Greenwood Food and Beverages, was behind the counter on the phone when a 32-year-old man came into the store with a gun. The man shot himself in the leg while trying to conceal the gun as police chased him inside.

“It was really very scary, “Kaurghotra said. “I thought he was going to kill us, rob us or keep us hostage. We didn’t know what was going to happen.”

The incident happened after 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 8. It began when the gunman was in a confrontation in the store’s parking lot and pulled a gun on a man in a vehicle, police said.

Kaurghortra said she hid behind the counter when the gunman came in. He had the gun in the air at first, and was yelling. Seconds later, he tried to put the handgun in his pants and the gun went off, hitting him in the leg.

Shortly after the gunman shot himself, a police officer came in, telling the workers to stay behind the counter.

“Everything happened in seconds,” Kaurghotra said, adding police located the weapon, bullet fragments and performed medical aid to the man who shot himself. “The police were very nice and swift.”